Kingsnake Flechette Gun

From Reach

The only triple-barreled personal firearm on Reach, the distinctive Kingsnake is a favorite weapon of bandits and criminals.

Much of the weapon's popularity comes from it's ease of use. The three barrels are short, thin-walled, and low caliber, and the weapon's bullpup configuration makes it easy to handle in tight spaces. It uses caseless flechette ammunition, which weighs far less than comparable conventional ammunition. While these flechettes are not very accurate at range, they create little recoil, allowing extremely accurate automatic fire. 100 small flechettes fit into the weapons large magazine, allowing a high rate of fire without frequent reloading. Each pull of the trigger fires all three barrels in a tight, accurate spread; expert shooters can usually get all three rounds into a 10 cm target at up to 60 meters. Automatic fire creates an extremely accurate stream of flechettes. These features pack the killing power of an assault rifle into what looks like a small SMG.

With their small area of penetration relative to kinetic energy, flechettes are ideal for use against light armor, able to puncture through many flexible armors that could catch a wider round (including the tough skin of many Natives. High quality All Weather Gear offers limited protection against conventional rounds, but none versus flechettes, and a 2mm puncture in All Weather Gear can spell certain death on Reach. Heavier armors generally stop flechettes before they can do any harm.

The Kingsnake is most often used against other humans, but is fairly effective against all but the heaviest armored natives. One flechette may not be fatal, but the high rate of accurate fire allows the user to put a lot of darts into one target.